Minimum fee for water set to increase

Ward 3 Coun. Dan McCreary lost a battle to keep the minimum charge for city water use from increasing in 2012.

An amendment to a fees and charges report before council's committee of the whole failed Tuesday night, after having been deferred from Monday evening's operations and administration committee meeting. As a result, the base fee for water use will go up by 2%, or about $2.40 a year.

McCreary said the increase to cover operational costs of offering municipal water should land on the usage fee, being the amount paid per cubic metre of water above the minimum charge.

"This is really punitive to folks who do the best they can to conserve water," McCreary said. "For example, a single guy, who pays the minimum bill - which exceeds his monthly usage - is penalized for his good conservation efforts. He's paying more for his water.

"By increasing the minimum bill, we further penalize those who can least afford it and have the best record on conservation."

Selvi Kongara, the city's acting director of environmental services, explained that the increase was put on the minimum charge because it's this revenue that pays for any increase in the fixed costs of running the water system. It pays for things like water department wages and benefits, maintenance costs for the treatment plant and the distribution pipes.

The consumption charge, based on an individual's water usage, covers costs such as the chemicals used to treat the water because these expenses increase as people use more water.

"We're budgeting $55,000 a year from this increase," Kongara said. "If we don't have that, we would increase the water-consumption charge by one cent, to $1.61 per cubic metre."

That thought almost swayed members of council in McCreary's favour, given that paying more for a cubic metre of water might do more to promote overall water conservation than an increase in the minimum bill.

"We could try increasing the fee per usage to get at what Coun. McCreary is saying about encouraging people not to overuse or waste water, but we can't get away from the basic costs that makes the water available to your house when you turn on the tap," Coun. David Neumann said.

"If we could freeze the basic fee for a year or two and increase the amount charged for usage to encourage conservation, it maybe something to consider."

Neumann acted on that thought at the end of the committee meeting, serving a notice of motion to be considered at a future meeting asking staff members to prepare a report on that very question.

With his attempt to amend the fee increase defeated in a split vote, McCreary was left to vote against the overall fees and charges report in a recorded vote.

Only he and Coun. Richard Carpenter voted against the overall changes, which included some increases and some decreases to the various fees charged by the city.